Tragedy doesn’t always happen in isolation. Sometimes tragedy hits an entire community, impacting hundreds of households and thousands of lives. That was the case in December 2021 when the Marshall fire hit the town of Superior, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.

With so many families displaced, those impacted could find solace in their community. This week on the podcast, I’m talking to one of those survivors.

Reina Pomeroy’s family had just moved to the area from California 20 weeks prior, thinking they were escaping the risk of wildfires in their new community. And being so new to the area at the time of the fire, and in the midst of Covid, Reina’s family had made few connections and friends.

In the devastation and grief of the fire and being one of 1,086 families to lose their home, Reina found support and hope in the mobilization and rebuilding of the community. Though the process is far from over, Reina’s and other families are dealing with the grief by going through it together and despite the many steps backward, they’re finding hope in the progress they’re making.

About Reina Pomeroy:

Reina Pomeroy is a former Social Worker turned Community Builder in her professional life. In December 2021, Reina and her family lost their home in the Marshall Fire. She and other fire survivors banded together to build a network and community to support others who lost everything as they navigate their way home.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Disaster Psychology Helps to Explain our Response During Crisis
• Wellness Webinar
• Expert in Hope

Hope and beauty have a lot in common. They can work together, one can inspire the other, and they can both encourage someone to take action. All three are true for this week’s guest, Nina Kins.

After a number of very difficult life circumstances, Nina was just starting to get back on her feet when she received a cancer diagnosis. A fighter, she put her head down and went to battle, but she didn’t think a lot about having hope of getting out the other side. At the same time, she watched many other cancer patients, many with much bleaker outcomes, exude hope in every doctor’s waiting room she sat in.

Eventually, Nina started to see hope in her situation. And some of that hope came from the beauty of watching others fight.

Now cancer free, Nina continues to navigate this new life she finds herself in and is digging back into childhood to tie hope and beauty together in a new podcast. Her new perspective is helping her to align her walk with her talk as she brings a love of beauty, in all its forms, to others.

Nina and I are so aligned in how we look at hope and beauty and the science behind it. If you’ve been a long-timer listener, you’re going to be nodding along as you listen.

About Nina Kins:

Writer and self-proclaimed Beauty Explorer, Nina Kins hosts This is Beauty Podcast where she invites us to reimagine the role of Beauty in our lives. Educated as a journalist and social historian, and trained as a marketing research analyst, Nina brings a unique blend of expertise and experience to her combined roles as a producer and host of the show.

Nina began her career in advertising with Ogilvy Advertising before transitioning into media and film production, working first as a production coordinator and then as a stylist on advertising campaigns for major brands After returning to school to pursue her masters, Nina moved to the Silicon Valley where she worked in mobile technology development before transitioning into branded entertainment in Los Angeles.

Though Nina's personal passions for history, science, culture, literature and the arts have been instrumental in shaping her podcast, her primary mission is to entertain and inspire her listeners by taking them on a voyage of discovery into the very heart of beauty where moments of joy, hope, and wonder still abound.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• This is Beauty Podcast
• Follow Nina’s podcast on Instagram and Facebook
• Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee
• Wellness Webinar
• Expert in Hope

There’s no avoiding adversity and challenges. Some we can prevent with careful planning and setting ourselves up for success. But many we can’t. No one can predict a tragedy or accident and be adequately prepared for it. It just happens, and we have to pick up the pieces and manage the aftermath.

This week’s podcast guest has lived through tragedy and turmoil, burnout and overwhelm, all of which has led her to where she is today. It was standing at the 9/11 memorial in New York City, in the midst of yet another big life change, where she had a big ah-ha moment that changed her mindset about her circumstances.

Diana Gremillion is a former chef and an international speaker and master life coach who looks at life circumstances as ingredients to a recipe. Sometimes you have good, fresh ingredients while other times you have to do what you can with what you have in your pantry. This incredible perspective on life is something we can all learn from so we can build the resilience we need to thrive.

About Diana Gremillion:

When Diana lost her hair and her chef career due to burnout, she decided to follow her dreams, quit her 9-5, and move to Hawai'i to start her own business. Through Savor Life LLC and The Body Positivity Podcast, Diana loves inspiring others to achieve their dreams - even when traumatic crisis makes hope seem impossible. In the words of Lisa Nichols, Diana’s dynamic stories and insights as an international speaker, serial entrepreneur, 9/11 survivor and chef are "food to my soul."

Mentioned In This Episode:

• Diana Gremillion’s website
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• Wellness Webinar
• Expert in Hope